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Interpretive Summary: A study was conducted to evaluate yeast cell wall (YCW) preparations on chicken health and body growth when exposed to food poisoning bacteria. Day-of-hatch chicks were placed in cages and fed diets with and without yeast products. Birds were given the food poisoning bacteria, Clostridium perfringens (Cp), at days 16 and 17. On day 21, tissue samples were collected from the small intestine for analysis with a chicken-specific test to study the influence of YCW supplementation on health and growth of metabolic pathways. On day 16, YCW birds had significantly lower body weight (BW) and weight gain (WG) than the control birds. The feed:gain ratio was significantly lower in the two control groups and the YCW group than other treatments. Birds were analyzed in the chicken-specific test using a performance index (PI), which is based on BW, feed:gain ratio, and mortality. Productivity index (PI) was lower in partially purified YCW than other groups. The addition of purified YCW to the starter broiler diets changed how the immune and metabolic systems function in the small intestine when exposed to food poisoning bacteria. These results suggested that yeast cell walls can change broiler growth parameters differently during food poisoning bacteria exposure and can reduce the illness caused by these bacteria.

Technical Abstract: A study was conducted to evaluate the influence of purification of yeast cell wall (YCW) preparations on broiler performance, and immunogenic and metabolic pathways under microbial challenge. A total of 240 day-of-hatch chicks were distributed among two battery brooder units (48 pens; 5 birds/pen; 8 replicates/treatment). A basal starter diet was divided into 5 batches, including non-challenge (NCh-C) and challenge (Ch-C) control, semi-purified YCW (SPYCW; 250 mg/kg), purified YCW (PYCW; 250 mg/kg), 50 percent purified beta-glucan (BG; 130 mg/kg), and 99.9 percent purified mannan oligosaccharide (MOS; 53 mg/kg). All birds were immunocompromised with infectious bursal disease vaccine (10x the recommended dose) on day 10, and then all birds, except NCh-C birds, were challenged with Clostridium perfringens (Cp) (107 30 CFU/ml) via oral gavage on days 16 and 17. On day 21, tissue samples were collected from the jejunum and duodenum for analysis with a chicken-specific peptide arrays technique to study the influence of YCW supplementation on immune and metabolic kinase pathways. On day 16, SPYCW had significantly lower body weight (BW) and weight gain (WG) than all treatments except BG (P<0.05). The feed:gain ratio was significantly lower in the two control groups and the PYCW than other treatments. Productivity index (PI) was lower in SPYCW and BG than NCh-C, CH-C, and PYCW. On day 21, after the C. perfringens challenge, NCh-C was significantly higher than Ch-C, SPYCW, and BG in BW, WG, and PI. The PI of PYCW was similar to NCh-C. The addition of purified YCW to the starter broiler diets influenced the immune and metabolic pathways in the gut. A total of 459 and 367 peptides in the duodenum and jejunum respectively were changed due to the Cp challenge. The YCW treatments had different degrees of influence on these peptides for both the duodenum and jejunum. These results suggested that purification of YCW and specific fractions of the YCW can influence broiler performance differently during microbial challenges and can alleviate the impact of these stressors.